Elizabeth Jordan

“ He wanted to go on talking, telling Murray about Ethel, but Murray didn't hear him. He had pushed a chair between Bertie and Miss Varick, had slipped into it, and now, very much at his ease, was giving all his attention to his hostess, who, in her turn, was obviously and wholly absorbed in him. Bertie, neglected, alone, studied them in silence, caught at last a look that flashed between them, felt a moment's pang, and then unselfishly rejoiced.
"By Jove! they've got it, too! Good for Janet!" his thoughts went on. "But I wish," he couldn't help adding, "it hadn't been Murray!" ”

“ I'm awfully sorry to hurt you, Bertie, but, to be frank, I don't think the hurt goes very deep. If the feeling itself were deep you couldn't make a joke and a game of it as you've done for the last two years, making yourself and me the laughing-stock of every one who knows us."
He rose, a sudden gravity draping him like a mantle. In it he looked strange to her, and, for the moment, much older than his years.
"I understand," he said. "I didn't before. Naturally, if I had, I wouldn't have kept on annoying you. A man doesn't deliberately annoy the girl he loves. ”

“ Surely they had never looked like that before!
"Love makes the whole world seem different," he mused. "Of course Ethel and Janey and Murray and I couldn't wake up in a moment to the Big Thing in life without a sort of readjustment of all the little things." ”

“ She was at once disappointed, hurt, and annoyed, and she looked at him with mingled incredulity and reproach. That he would disregard her wishes sooner or later she had felt sure; that he would obey them for at least a week had seemed equally certain.
"Oh, how can you!" she exclaimed. "You know what I told you—"
He interrupted her, his eyes shining.
"I know I'm a selfish beast," he said. "But I can't help it. I've got to talk to you. It's such a big thing." ”

“ Bertie nodded, his face very grave. "Don't I know?" he said. "I'm as old as you are! Since I've met her I've broken into a cold perspiration sometimes over the thought that some other girl might have got me before she came. It often happens, you know," he added. Miss Varick favored him with a piercing glance, but it was clear that he was speaking with entire sincerity and with an utter absence of memories which might have checked his artless prattle.
"A man," he continued, oracularly, "flirts and flutters about a bit, and loses his head a few times, perhaps. ”

“ Still Janet did not speak, and, still unconscious of her lack of response, Bertie continued his recitation.
"Sometimes you propose because you can't think of anything else to say," he pursued, reflectively, "and sometimes because it would hurt a girl's feelings if you didn't. She thinks she likes you, and she thinks you like her. Or a man's lonesome, and hates hotels and clubs and boarding-houses, so he 'marries for a home,' exactly as much as any woman ever does." ”

“ She bowls folks over. The other fellows are mad about her. Why, Janet, she's the most exquisite thing that ever lived—utterly different from our Northern girls. I didn't know girls came that way. She has bronzy hair with gold lights in it, and great big brown eyes—"
"Bertie, for Heaven's sake go home!" begged Janet Varick, wearily. "This headache of mine—"
He was all contrition. "I'm a beast," he admitted, abjectly ”

“ This dimple did not go with his athletic record, but he had been privately assured that the record, so to speak, "carried" it. At least few mentioned it in his hearing. The unmasculine effect of the dimple was also counteracted by a strong jaw—strong for such a young person—the lines of which were especially firm at this moment, as he settled more comfortably into his chair. ”